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Whale off Georgia coast found bound in fishing gear

A young North Atlantic right whale is swimming easier after wildlife biologists cut away most of the 100-plus yards of heavy fishing rope the animal was dragging.

The disentanglement effort, much of which occurred 40 miles off Georgia’s Wolf Island Monday, was relatively quick for the 4-year-old male whale, one of only about 450 remaining North Atlantic right whales. Wolf Island is located south of Cumberland Island in McIntosh County.

Directed to the whale by an aerial survey team and a satellite tracking buoy monitored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, staff with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission assessed the entanglement and threw a cutting grapple across the trailing rope, according to a press release from the DNR.

Seconds later, thick synthetic rope parted.

But responders could not remove all of the rope because the whale avoided the boats and because the rope is likely entangled in its baleen — the filter-feeding structure inside its mouth.

The hope is the whale known to researchers as No. 4057 will shed the rest of the rope on its own.

“Like us they have a tongue,” said wildlife biologist Clay George, who heads right whale research for Georgia DNR. “We presume they’re able to use their tongue to manipulate things.”

Some North Atlantic right whales have shed remaining gear after a partial disentanglement; some haven’t. Responders won’t know this whale’s fate until, or unless, he is seen again. Entanglement in commercial fishing gear is one of the leading causes of death and injury for North Atlantic right whales, an endangered species and one of world’s most imperiled whales.

The whale has severe injuries on his head and flukes, George said. That and the fact that rope remained stuck in its baleen highlight the need to prevent entanglements.

“The take home message from this case is we can’t fix and disentangle every whale,” George said. “We have to work to prevent entanglement in the first place.”

DNR last worked to disentangle a whale in 2011, though in that case they assessed the animal and decided not to intervene. Its situation was similar to how 4057 looked after the partial disentanglement, George said.

More than 80 percent of North Atlantic right whales bear scars from rope entanglements, and almost 60 percent have been entangled twice.

“Most entanglements occur in gillnet and trap/pot gear that is left to soak in the water unattended for long periods,” said Barb Zoodsma, NOAA Fisheries’ coordinator of right whale recovery efforts in the Southeastern U.S.

University of North Carolina-Wilmington researchers conducting an aerial survey for the U.S. Navy spotted right whale No. 4057 off Jacksonville, Fla., on Sunday. A Duke University boat team also doing research for the Navy attached a suction cup-mounted tag to temporarily track the whale’s movements while FWC biologists were en route. The biologists removed more than half of the 11/16-inch diameter, lead-weighted rope and attached a satellite tracking buoy to the remaining rope so the whale could be relocated the next day.

An FWC aerial survey team relocated the whale 40 miles east of Wolf Island on Monday morning. The whale had covered 60 miles in less than 17 hours. A team of DNR and FWC biologists worked from boats to remove most of the remaining rope.

It’s not known where the rope came from or the specific type of fishing it had been used for. “Judging from its wounds, I suspect this whale had been hauling that rope for weeks or longer,” George said. “It’s impossible to know if he’ll survive, but at least we gave him a fighting chance.”

North Atlantic right whales are protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act of 1973 and the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972.

Since whaling was banned in 1935, the recovery of North Atlantic right whales has been limited by mortality from ship collisions and entanglement in commercial fishing gear. There are still fewer than 100 breeding females left.

Report sightings of dead, injured or entangled whales by calling 1-877-WHALE-HELP (877-942-534357). NOAA’s Dolphin & Whale 911 app, http://1.usa.gov/1b1kqfv, can also be used to report marine mammals in trouble.